Financial Sense Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of PPL Corp (NYSE:PPL) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 25,890 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $758,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in PPL. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd boosted its stake in PPL by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 227,364 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,491,000 after purchasing an additional 12,734 shares during the period. DnB Asset Management AS boosted its stake in PPL by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 104,330 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,979,000 after purchasing an additional 7,700 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its holdings in PPL by 46.6% in the 2nd quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 30,610 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $874,000 after acquiring an additional 9,724 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its holdings in PPL by 36.4% in the 2nd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 138,462 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,952,000 after acquiring an additional 36,940 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Denali Advisors LLC raised its holdings in PPL by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 465,096 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,278,000 after acquiring an additional 33,800 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.63% of the company’s stock.

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Several research firms have commented on PPL. Wells Fargo & Co upped their price target on PPL from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 17th. Zacks Investment Research cut PPL from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 9th. ValuEngine raised PPL from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 11th. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on PPL in a report on Thursday, August 23rd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $30.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. PPL currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.18.

NYSE PPL opened at $30.83 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $21.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.40. PPL Corp has a one year low of $25.30 and a one year high of $37.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.58.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.98 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 15.23% and a net margin of 19.17%. PPL’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. Analysts forecast that PPL Corp will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Company Profile

PPL Corporation, a utility holding company, delivers electricity and natural gas in the United States and the United Kingdom. The company operates in three segments: U.K. Regulated, Kentucky Regulated, and Pennsylvania Regulated. It serves 411,000 electric and 326,000 natural gas customers in Louisville and adjacent areas in Kentucky; 525,000 customers in central, southeastern, and western Kentucky; and approximately 28,000 customers in 5 counties in southwestern Virginia, and 3 customers in Tennessee.